April 8 is International Roma Day. It was proposed as such by the International Roma Union (Romani Union), and since 1992 it has been recognized by the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Today, all institutions of the European Union recognize and even celebrate April 8 as International Roma Day.
On this day, we honor the memory of half a million Roma who were massacred during the Second World War, when the Nazis applied a systematic holocaust to the Roma as well. But the reason why exactly April 8th is Roma Day is related to the fact that on this day in 1971, the first World Roma Congress began in London, which adopted the anthem and flag of the Roma. Since then, we mark it as a symbol of the Roma movement, of the fact that Roma from all over the world unite in their quest for equal inclusion in the globalizing modern world. The preservation and renewal of the Roma identity is an important part of this process: an identity that preserves the primordial Roma values, but breaks the patriarchal shackles of the modern Roma; an identity that includes the identities of different groups and is a bridge between them. Because only a person who is proud of his identity can be equal.
That’s why April 8th is Roma Awakening Day! And the call “Opré Roma!” sounds like “Wake up Roma!”
We all have the good fortune to live in the age of the Romani awakening and to contribute to its happening. This is also our responsibility! Happy April 8th, like-minded people!
The Roma anthem is the song “Djelem, djelem” (“I wandered, I wandered”), popular among the Balkan Roma and authorized by the Serbian Roma Zarko Jovanovic. It talks both about the hard times of the Roma Holocaust, and about the opening of new roads for the Roma, about the Roma awakening. The Roma flag is a wheel with 12 spokes on a blue and green background. The wheel is the Indian ‘chakra’ wheel and symbolizes the Indian origin of the Roma. The background symbolizes the blue sky and green grass.
For more information on the occasion of the holiday, you can get it at the TSA event on April 8, 2021 at 18:00: https://www.facebook.com/events/787894635163658